How Fast Do You Need To Be To Effectively Handle a Running Dogwalk?
Many people are considering training running contacts with their upcoming agility prospects. While a running A-frame seems manageable for most handlers, a running dogwalk is a very different thing. The very fast dogs are doing running dogwalks in the range of 1.4-1.7 seconds. With those sort of times, many handlers wonder if they will be able to get into position to handle the obstacles following the dogwalk.
Just how fast do you need to be to make a running dogwalk a good choice? I was trying to answer this question for myself so I decided to create a free tool to help handlers decide whether a running dogwalk was a good choice for them. That tool is the Running Dogwalk Calculator.
The calculator is a spreadsheet and should function any spreadsheet program. It was created using the open source (free) suite OpenOffice.org. Download your free copy and try it out. It is available as a xls file for Microsoft Excel or as a Open Document ods file for OpenOffice.org etc. The idea behind the calculator is fairly simple. It compares your speed and your dog’s time across the dogwalk and gives you an idea of where you might be in different situations on course.
Measure Your Speed
You need to time yourself running a measured distance of 50 feet. Record each of your times in the calculator and it will create an average time.
There are four areas (scenarios) that you can enter your times. So you can calculate separate times for different situations such as beginning from a standstill; with a running start; or from a “U” turn etc. Choose scenarios that are likely to occur on a course.
Get a Score in Feet
The calculator takes your entered times and compares them against a table of dowalk speeds. Look up your dog’s time over a dogwalk and you will find a personal score for you based on the times you entered. If your dog’s time is outside of the range then simply enter your dog’s time in the white box beside “Custom Dogwalk Time” and find you score below that. Each scenario you created has a score for you, in feet, that applies to that situation.
In the example above the handler recorded an average time of 3.24 sec from a standstill and 2.75 from a running start. If this handler’s dog did a running dogwalk in 1.4 seconds, they would have scores of -13ft from a standstill and -10 ft with a running start.
How Does Your Score Translate to a Situation on Course?
Your score essentially tells you where you would be relative to your dog if you were right beside him as he got on the dogwalk. Simply put, a score of -13ft means as your dog exited the dogwalk you would be 13 feet behind if you were side-by-side as he got on it. There are also a lot of other ways of looking your score. I have posted some examples from hypothetical course situations on another page – Using the RDC Scores.
Tags: Agility, Dog, Dogwalk, Running Contacts, Training